The invention relates to a simulation switch for incorporation into a flight simulator and to the simulation of an excess-current circuit breaker which can be manually actuated using an actuating element.
Flight simulators are used to train pilots since dry runs on land are first needed so that the pilots can master the complexity of modern cockpits before they are allowed to practice in an actual airplane. In such a flight simulator, all of the operating and display elements found in an actual cockpit have to be available in an identical version, at least in the interface to the pilot, in order to convey the most realistic impression possible.
Thus, the simulation switches used in the flight simulator to simulate the circuit breakers of the type known, for example, from German Published Examined Application No. DE-AS 1 191 030 or German Utility Model Nos. DE-GM 8 904 064 and 89 04 065, all three of which are herewith incorporated by reference herein, have to be the same as those that are present to safeguard the power circuits in the actual airplane. In this context, the feel of the mechanical switching when the simulation switch is manually actuated must not differ from the feel of the switching during the manual actuation of a circuit breaker found in an actual airplane. For this reason, the same circuit breakers are installed in the flight simulator that are also used in the actual airplane. However, since the circuit breakers used in the flight simulator do not have to safeguard any actual power circuits, thermal circuit breakers are used whose rated current is as low as possible (typically 200 to 500 mA) so that this circuit breaker can be systematically released with the smallest possible currents and thus with the lowest possible dissipation power. Nevertheless, the necessary release currents are in the ampere range. This leads to relatively high energy values (˜i2t) to actuate the simulation switch, as a result of which the supply network of the flight simulator has to be dimensioned accordingly. Moreover, due to the thermal release, the release times are in the range of seconds. This has to be taken into account by correspondingly long actuation times in the software used for the flight simulator in order to simulate the actual release times for every possible operational case or malfunction state.